Before we proceed, it would be best to cover some basic user administration topics that will be very useful in later chapters. Adding Users
One of the most important activities in administering a Linux box is the addition of users. Here you'll find some simple examples to provide a foundation for future chapters. It is not intended to be comprehensive, but is a good memory refresher. You can use the command man useradd to get the help pages on adding users with the useradd command or the man usermod to become more familiar with modifying users with the usermod command
Most Linux user's have used sudo before but do you know how to use it to increase your security? This article does a great job at explaining everything you need to know about sudo.
ProxyStrike is an active Web Application Proxy, is a tool designed to find vulnerabilities while browsing an application. It was created because the problems faced in the pentests of web applications that depends heavily on Javascript, not many web scanners did it good in this stage, so ProxyStrike was born.
Read on for further detail into how ProxyStrike helps you realize just what is happening behind the scenes as you browse sites. See if the sites you frequent are doing anything malicious behind your back!
Source: Information Week - Posted by Eckie Silapaswang
So now that Ubuntu Linux was "last man standing" in the PWN to OWN contest at CanSecWest, does this mean open source has it all over the competition when it comes to security? It can, and it ought to -- but it's not a guarantee. And we need to not think it is.
The writer brings up several valid points in this article - even though the Linux computer outlasted the Apple and Windows machines, any successful exploitation of the machine resulted in true "spoils of war" - they got to keep the laptop! Can the "success" of Linux at CanSecWest be a result of "security through obscurity" and the fact that you could win a shiny new MacBook Air through cracking it?
Server virtualization technologies offer significant performance, cost and manageability breakthroughs for innovative data centers. Through the intelligent coordination of virtualization and security elements, data center administrators can protect critical resources, enhance user satisfaction, reduce operating expenses and ensure regulatory compliance. While virtualized environments raise tough new network security concerns, emerging technologies and best practices can help organizations meet these challenges effectively and efficiently.
This article includes a comprehensive checklist of questions one should have answers to if they ever consider virtualization as a data storage solution for any size company. Run through the list and see if this constantly improving technology is at a point you can use today!
In the field of IT systems security, concept of” port knocking” is relatively new. However with the passage of time, it is getting popular day by day among system and security administrators.
Port knocking is a method of externally opening ports on a firewall by generating a connection attempt on a set of pre-specified closed ports. Once a correct sequence of connection attempts is received, the firewall rules are dynamically modified to allow the host which sent the connection attempts to connect over specified port (s).
Checkout this article about port knocking. It's any important security practice that every system administrator should know about.
Uncle Milton Industries has been selling ant farms to children since 1956. Some years ago, I remember opening one up with a friend. There were no actual ants included in the box. Instead, there was a card that you filled in with your address, and the company would mail you some ants. My friend expressed surprise that you could get ants sent to you in the mail.
I replied: "What's really interesting is that these people will send a tube of live ants to anyone you tell them to."
Read on for an interesting observation from Bruce Schneier about the mindset of security professionals. There is emphasis put on a certain college course which focuses on this way of thinking - it's amazing what a last name can grant you these days!
In this article I share some of the basics of setting up a Linux firewall using the iptables tool. It's important to note that configuring firewalls is slightly different depending on which flavour you use.
If you are just starting out and need to enable a firewall on your Linux system, I suggest you try a basic tool such as lokkit (which is available in major flavours including Fedora/RedHat and Ubuntu). It is a very simple tool that walks you through a configuration. To use this, run the command: gnome-lokkit
The jobs of a Linux server administration are too many to list but server security should be towards the top of the list. This articles walks the user through some of the more important Linux security practices.
Written back in August, Security Power Tools is a compilation of tools and information from all the security experts you can get your hands. Or so says the publisher. An excerpt from the review: You'll find the mother load of network security "power tools" in this book, so if you're serious about security or perhaps, soon plan to be, pick up a copy of "Security Power Tools" and have a go at it. Even if you don't understand all of the content right off the bat, you'll be inspired to learn.
Source: http://duckdown.blogspot.com - Posted by Ryan Berens
Perhaps you don't run an enterprise network. Chances are good that, you aren't a CIO either. But security is security, whether its through open source tools or not. And often the same patterns needed for enterprise security are still very relevant to all security. And, regardless, we couldn't pass up this hilarious yet true list of problems most organizations make when it comes to security. Very, very good. Here are the first two:
# Use process as a substitute for competence: The answer to every problem is almost always methodology, so you must focus savagely on CMMi and ITIL while not understanding the fact that hackers attack software.
# Ostritch Principle: Since you were so busy aligning with the business which really means that you are neither a real IT professional nor business professional, you have spent much of your time perfecting memorization of cliche phrases and nomenclature and hoping that the problem will go away if you ignore it.
It's an interesting idea, notably because such an organization has yet to be created. Furthermore, to ease the pangs of such a new organization, it's pretty informal, to provide a more friendly format for such touchy issues as vendor vulnerabilities.
The concept is moderately similar to full-disclosure or bugtraq, but is aimed particularly at OSS vendors and authors. Because of the sensitivity of some issues on vendor-sec (pre-disclosure issues, etc.) having a large number of people on vendor-sec isn’t really viable, so oss-security aims to fill that gap by allowing those interested in security (and not necessarily members of vendor security teams) to discuss public issues, coordinate audits, or whatever. The aim is to have a stronger OSS security community and to allow people with interest and expertise to get involved, without having to adhere to the strict “code” associated with vendor-sec.
